Osgood as Dead: The Spectral Inspector, Book IV by Cooper S. Beckett
Osgood as Dead: The Spectral Inspector, Book IV by Cooper S. Beckett will release on February 6, 2025 from Horror & Carnage Press and weighs in at 370 pages.
This is my second foray into Prudence Osgood’s world—Os to her friends. It was a nice touch to have a recap at the beginning of the book with information about the first two I haven’t read, plus a little bit of a refresher since prior to this I’d only read the third/previous book in the series (Osgood As She Gets). All four books can be stand-alone reads. Beckett is very generous with clues to give readers a basic understanding of past situations without being overwhelming. Readers can easily piece together what’s happening without confusion when a backstory is needed.
This book starts out on the slow side, as you are primarily in Osgood’s mind. She’s back in the hospital, but this time she’s suffering from Locked-In Syndrome. She’s alert in her mind, but she’s unable to move or communicate with the people around her. That doesn’t mean there isn’t action in this portion of the story—there definitely is—but prepare for a low key experience until midway through the book. Once you hit that point, it’s game on with action, thrills, and moments that will have you flipping the pages as fast as you can.
Readers will be reunited with Audrey and Zack (and a few others!) plus some new characters that bring a lot of flavor to the story. Let’s just say Osgood has some fascinating relatives! I loved getting another chance to watch the Spectral Inspectors work together to figure out how to deal with a mysterious situation threatening life as they know it. Beckett adds in pieces of actual Chicago history to enhance the plot, which helped create a realistic setting despite dealing with issues that aren’t from this world.
One of the best parts of the Osgood books is watching Os cope with her chronic pain and social issues as well as figure out how and where she belongs despite her differences. Like so many people, she struggles to accept who she is and that she actually does need other people in her life.
Calling all specterinos!
You can check out the whole Osgood experience here: https://spectralinspector.com/
Prudence Osgood is a multi-faceted character, and the way she’s written makes her feel like an actual person you might run into on the street, not just a character in a book. If you enjoy paranormal, mystery, snappy dialogue, and a main character who’ll keep you on your toes, check out Osgood As Dead.
Need more Prudence Osgood?
Check out my spoiler-free review of Osgood As She Gets HERE.
Get to know Cooper S. Beckett:
As a queer non-monogamous writer, Cooper S. Beckett endeavors to create characters that reflect the diverse lifestyles of his friends, his partners, and himself. From that mandate, he writes scary, silly, and sexy books and essays. Beginning his writing career as a podcaster as host of the Life on the Swingset Podcast and speaker in the sexuality education community, he wrote My Life on the Swingset, a memoir of his first five years in non-monogamy, then followed that up with two novels that take a brutally honest look at swinging and polyamory, A Life Less Monogamous, and Approaching the Swingularity. Returning to his first love, the horror genre with first Osgood as Gone, and now Osgood Riddance, has been like a homecoming. From a young age, his obsession with horror movies and books seriously concerned his mother. It probably still does. Given a choice, he would rather winter at the Overlook than the Waldorf. Like Lydia Deetz, he has always thought of himself strange and unusual, be it his perspective on sexuality, monogamy, politics, or where Elder Gods ought to fall in the hierarchy.
He lives in Chicago with Elle, his wife, constant, and binary star, Egon, their ghost terrier, and black cat Willow.
***Taken from Cooper S. Beckett’s website
